Cyprus was after 58 BC a part of the Roman Empire and thereafter the
Byzantine Empire. It became de facto an independent state when the
self-proclaimed
Byzantine emperor Isaakios Komnēnos conquered the island 1185. He was then
expelled 1191 by Richard the Lionheart during the Third Crusade. The English king
sold the island shortly afterwards to the Knights Templars who in their turn sold
it to the former king of Jerusalem, Guy de Lusignan. Formally Cyprus did not become
a kingdom until 1197 when Guy's brother and successor Amaury I was elevated to
king by the Holy Roman Emperor Heinrich IV. The kingdom existed for 300 years until
its queen Catherine Cornaro was forced to sell the island to Venice in 1489.